Some raw quotes following the Winnipeg Jets home win over the visiting LA Kings on Friday…
– Olli Jokinen on playing against a tough team like the Kings: “After the first period we started playing the way we should play. The first twenty weren’t good enough. The second period, the last six, seven minutes, we start playing the way we have to play in this conference to win games. They made a push there at the end but it was a good two points for us.”
– Jokinen on the overall game: “The main thing is we got two points. We had a pretty good start for the season, but at the same time there is still a lot of work ahead. We have to try to keep building and try to keep getting better everyday.”
– Jokinen looking back on his his first NHL goal: “I think it was Ray Ferraro who passed the puck. I think it was against Calgary, playing with LA. It was nice to score against them. That was the team I started playing…I think it was Ferraro who passed it to me behind the net in Calgary. I’ve been lucky enough to play with some great players and great line mates. With the goals, at the end of the day, it’s just a number. You just want to be part of the winning team. That’s the main focus.”
– Andrew Ladd on staring the year with a 2-0 record: “It’s a good start, but we have to keep in mind that it’s just a start. I think we got better from the Edmonton game. We have to realize what we’ve done well in these past two games and try to keep that pace.”
– Ladd on what worked well vs the Kings: “I think we did a better job as the game went on, getting pucks in the right areas and winning battles down low, getting pucks to their net. I thought they did a better job than [we did] the first period, just getting pucks to the net and keeping it simple. We kind of learned from them a little bit and got back playing in their end.”
– Ladd on storming back in the third after being tripled up in shots against: “Yes…what I was talking about there. We saw them shooting everything at the start of the game. We came in here after the first and talked about getting pucks to the net and we did that. Even if it’s not going to go in, you might create a second chance…you bounce the puck in the corner and create something out of there. We did a lot better job of that.”
– Ladd on the physical component of the Jets’ game tonight: “For me, it’s winning battles in corners.”
– Ondrej Pavelec on the overall game: “Huge. We got two points. That’s what we wanted, a good start. We’ve are two zero now so that’s a good start, a good win for us.”
– Pavelec on closing out a game against a very good team, something the Jets struggled with last year: “It almost cost us the game. It was 4-1. We have to be a little more smarter there. We took a lot of penalties in the third. In this time in the game, we’ve got to be better. There’s no excuse for this, and if we want to win the games against really tough teams like LA, we have to be better. There’s no question. But we battled hard. After [the] first period we sat down here and we said, ‘We can’t play like that.” I think second period we played great and [the] third as well. It was a big win for us and we battled hard and like I said, [it was] a big win for us.”
– Pavelec on if this win means more, knowing it was against the LA Kings: “Everybody knows why they won the Cup a few years ago. They have some big guys in the line-up. They can score the goals. They play really well defensively, especially if you put them on a power play. That can be a long night for you. They play tough hockey, but I think we handled it pretty well and we won.”
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Special thanks to David Minuk of IllegalCurve.com for supplying the post-game audio from Winnipeg.
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